The partnership will open one hotel in the city of Sao Pauloand two in coastal Santos, a hub for Brazil's offshore oil boom,in 2015 and early 2016, executives said in an interview. Thehotels will be sold to investors for an estimated 258 millionreais ($127 million).

"There's a lack of new hotels in Sao Paulo ... We went along time without launching anything," said Accor's head ofLatin American operations, Abel Castro. Ten years have passedsince the partnership opened a new hotel in the city.

In that time, unprecedented macroeconomic stability and thediscovery of massive deep-sea oil reserves five years ago havegiven the local economy a shot in the arm, driving up realestate prices.

"Buying a well-located plot in Sao Paulo just to build ahotel is a difficult equation," said Paulo Melo, the regionaldirector of Odebrecht's real estate arm.

To justify the investment and overcome increasinglydifficult transportation snags, he said, the new developmentswill combine hotels, residential towers and commercial space.

"We believe in the model of compact urban development, withstores, offices and hotel in the same place," Melo said. "Theidea is to balance the project mix with multiple ventures."